Yoga Sutra Reflections Session 17: Sampragyat Samadhi

Integrating Ancient Wisdom in Modern Life: Rediscover Our Happiness and Peace

1. We are searching for our happiness and peace outside. We will not find it there. As both of them are inside us. So the direction needs to be changed. Meditation is turning inside to rediscover our happiness and peace which is already there inside of us.
2. Sampragyata samadhi is a type of samadhi (spiritual ecstasy), which is the eventual aim of meditation. It is a limited form of self-awareness that is described as a type of conscious meditation or cognition. In this state, the yogi is able to recognise the content of his/her own mind and then consciously release it.
3. There are four levels of consciousness through which the mind moves during Sampragyat Samadhi. Vitarka: gross thought or reasoning, Vichar: subtle thought, Ananda: bliss, ecstasy and Asmita: I-ness, individuality. By practising Sampragyat Samadhi, the fluctuating mind goes beyond these four levels. It is done with external support.
4. When a fluctuating mind has calmed down and focused it is called Vasikara Samjna Vairagyam. Mind has become stable and not fluctuating any more either by input or output. But the seed of our desire remains. From this state we can start Sampragyat Samadhi.
5. In this type of meditation, the practitioner’s samskaras (mental impressions) are not erased. It is a cognitive sort of meditation wherein the practitioner is aware of the outside world, of the self, and of an inner sense of bliss and existence.
6. When the object is gross it is called Avitark Samadhi. As we are habitual to search for happiness and peace outside or from the object or people, Sampragyat Samadhi starts from gross object. Meditating on a gross object, word(Name of the Object) and knowledge regarding the object becomes one it is called Avitrak Meditation. In this Samadhi meditator unites with the gross objects with its name and knowledge.
7. Once you have experienced the unity with gross object, word and knowledge then you move to the Nir-Vitrak Meditation means the subtle aspect of the object which is not physical. For example from flower to fragrance, from statue of any deity to the sumiran, etc. Here the meditator and objects merge into each other. Our memories and impression of the object drops. It is called Nir-Vitrak Samadhi.
8. If we practise Avitrak and Nir-Vitark Samadhi and succeed to merge into subtle objects, then we can take our seeds of desire as objects of meditation. With Avitrak and Nir-Vitark Samadhi seed can be made infertile.